Living well in the urban village

Char Siu Bao

These barbeque pork filled steamed buns are a Yum Cha (Dim Sum) staple, and one of my favourites as I was growing up. When I came across this recipe by Lydia Teh at Rasa Malaysia, I thought it looked promising. Turns out it’s more than that, it’s an absolute cracker!

Follow Lydia’s directions carefully, and you’ll turn out fluffy white buns that taste just like the ones they serve at Yum Cha. The only change I made was to increase the amount of char siu used – my sixteen bao used 350g of pork rather than 250g…

Each bao was shaped and placed on a small tart liner – squares of parchment paper would work equally as well…

This photo of my first attempt highlights a mistake I made – be sure to dissolve the baking powder well before adding it to the dough, to avoid a blotchy finish…

A few other tips:

Use a rolling pin rather than flattening out the dough with your fingers – it results in a more even bun.

Use scales to divide your dough and filling into sixteen portions before you start assembling.

Adding a little vinegar to the steaming water really does seem to whiten the finished bao.

Keep the steamed char siu bao covered until ready to serve – if exposed to the air for too long, they’ll harden and dry up.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! It should be quite easy to find the specialist flours needed at Asian grocers. And if you’re looking for a gluten-free version, my friend Becca the InTolerant Chef has one here!

Sally, they don’t take long to make, and I used bought char siu so the filling bit was dead easy! I’m going to try making my own char siu as well. You know hon, I think you might actually be Chinese.. ;-)

Cheers for the linky to this excellent recipe Celia. I will make some with meaty filling for Steve and some with a mushroom filling for me. I have a recipe for tapioca dumpling wrappers someplace…must go look for it! Again, cheers for the share :)

I have made them before with plain flour but the pure white pillowy soft texture that you get from using the right kind of flour was missing. I know where to get some and will make these the next time I head into town :)

Brilliant! My dad used to bring these home as a treat when I was a child in HK – and I’ve always wondered and never dared to try and make them. You may have convinced me! Also, just quietly, I have now made that chocolate cake recipe about 20 times since you posted it and it is the quickest, tastiest, never fail recipe I’ve ever used for cake! I find cooking it at 140 (fan) keeps it super moist and utterly irresistible. So thanks again!

Claire, do try them, it’s so cool to make our childhood taste memories at home! :) And thank you for letting me know about the chocolate cake – nothing makes me happier than when someone takes a recipe and changes it up to suit their own tastes. It’s now truly yours! :)

Hi Celia, when we were children mum use to make the most delicous baos. Fillings would be pork mince or chau siu. I use to love the dough so much she would also make little plain ones with just dough for me. We had a enormous double steamer and she would make huge batches, no sense of portion control :) I don’t eat meat but at yum cha when hubby eats char siu bao I can’t resist stealing pieces of dough from his. These days mum makes bao that has sweet potato mixed in the dough with a sweet yellow bean filling, sounds bit odd but delicious.

How awesome yours turned out Celia! I bet they lasted just two minutes with your boys :)
Thanks for the linky love sweetie, sorry I’ve been bit hit and miss lately but had my wrist done and am pretty out of if. Xox